Early start for India-Pak matches

Dew factor necessitates noon start for two ODIs.

Shahid Afridi may find himself back in the ODI side.Calcutta / New Delhi: The one-day International matches of the much-anticipated series between India and Pakistan beginning next week will have early starts, the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced Thursday. The BCCI has decided to start the second and third ODI, in Calcutta (January 3) and Delhi (January 6) respectively, from 12 noon.

Though no official reason was given, it's obvious that the dew factor, which affects day/night matches during this time of the year, led to the decision. On Wednesday, the Board had revised the timings of the first four matches of the India-England ODI series as it believed that dew could play an important role in the outcome of the games.

However, the first ODI against Pakistan, to be held in Chennai on December 30, will remain a day-game starting at 9am. The first T20 International of the two-match series, to be held on December 25 in Bangalore, will begin from 7pm. The second T20 game, in Ahmedabad, on December 28, will commence at 5 pm.

Meanwhile, the PCB is still awaiting the 3000 tickets promised to it by the BCCI.

A PCB source said that a long list of requests had been received by the three travel agencies designated to handle the requests from Pakistanis wishing to travel to India for the matches.